In communication networks, such as telecommunication networks, a call or a service often involves, on the one hand, a control plane or signalling plane and, on the other hand, a user plane or media plane. The control plane or signalling plane is in charge of establishing and managing a connection between two points on the network. The user plane or media plane is in charge of transporting the user data.
In this context, network operators often want to define and enforce a set of rules in the network. A set of rules constitutes policies. A policy framework for managing and enforcing these policies usually includes at least three elements, or functions: a policy repository for storing the policy rules, which may be user-specific, a policy decision element, function or point, and a policy enforcement element, function or point. The purposes of a policy framework include controlling subscriber access to the networks and services.
A policy framework notably addresses the decisions as to whether the subscriber, i.e. the user, is entitled, or authorized, to enjoy a service, and whether the network can provide the service to the subscriber (and, possibly, with which quality of service).
Policy and charging control (PCC) architectures, such as, but not limited to, the architecture described in “3GPP TS 23.203 V9.11.0 (2012-03); Technical Specification; 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; Policy and charging control architecture (Release 9)” (available on http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/html-info/23203.htm), integrate the policy and charging control.
In such a FCC architecture, the PCRF is a functional entity in charge of deciding charging, policies and quality of service (QoS) for services of a given user. The PCRF may for instance decide the quality of the connection to be allocated for voice, video, etc, which results, for example, on the establishment of dedicated bearer(s) with guaranteed bit rate (GBR) or non-guaranteed bit rate (non GBR). The PCRF may also make decisions about packet forwarding treatment in the radio access network (RAN) by means of determining the QoS class identifier (QCI). The PCRF may also decide, at the packet core control plane, the priority of a bearer to be established over other bearers, for the same or different users, by providing allocation and retention priority (ARP) information. Based on the above decisions by the PCRF, PCC rules may be generated and installed in a PCEF of the PCC architecture, so that each service is given the appropriate treatment that the service requires.
In telecommunications networks, a multiple-user subscription is a shared subscription involving more than one user. A multiple-user subscription in this context comprises at least one user who is privileged compared to the other users of the subscription, hereinafter referred to as non-privileged users, in the sense that the privileged user has the authority to decide which services the non-privileged users may access and/or the conditions under which the non-privileged users may access such services.
It is desirable to provide methods and apparatuses to improve PCC architectures and implementations, notably to efficiently handle multiple-user subscriptions, without increasing, or at least without excessively increasing, the implementation and architecture complexity and the associated equipment costs.